Prospects

It may appear that this paper poses a dilemma for an existing institution dependent for support upon other institutions, among which many of the most powerful are dedicated to the maintenance of privilege rather than to the equalization of educational opportunity. In major part this charge must be admitted. Nevertheless, there are in every institution degrees of freedom. Many individuals, occupying key roles in all of the most powerful institutions in the world, are deeply ambivalent. They recognize that the present struggle for power and privilege cannot long continue its present course and even that any such continuance is fraught with grave dangers for mankind. Furthermore, the ideologies which most institutions propound already express the values which these institutions subvert in operation, and the proclamation of these ideologies is not wholly hypocritical. There is room for manoeuvre, therefore, and while not everything is possible, much can be done to free educational resources from their present shackles, and even to use them in weakening these shackles further.

The article provides an overview of the global economic landscape in which the contemporary skills development discourse is located. Effective skills development oriented to market needs and to competitiveness in high-value global value chains will help developing economies to avoid the middle income trap. It outlines major issues and challenges that developing economies need to deal with in crafting appropriate policies and strategies for skills development: addressing the persistent problem of skills-jobs mismatches, strengthening the participation of the private sector to increase market-oriented training, assuring inclusive growth, preparing for the expansion of green economy opportunities, and increasing emphasis on soft skills. It also provides an introduction to the various articles in the special issue.

This paper describes the effect that assistive technologies, such as paper, printing, protractors, logarithm tables, computers, and the Internet, have on pedagogy. It reports the results of experiments with self-organising systems in primary education and develops the concept of a self-organised learning environment (SOLE). It then describes how SOLEs operate, and their possible effects on primary education in remote areas, and discusses the implications of the physics of complex systems and their possible connection with self-organised learning amongst children. Finally, it proposes a change in the examination system that would incorporate the Internet and concepts of self-organisation into schooling.